Broker in Winans Case Is Sentenced

Published: February 27, 1988

Peter N. Brant, a former stockbroker who was a major prosecution witness in the R. Foster Winans case, was sentenced yesterday to eight months in prison for trading stocks using inside information about forthcoming articles in The Wall Street Journal.

Federal District Judge Charles E. Stewart of the Southern District in Manhattan also imposed a fine of $10,000, five years' probation and 750 hours of community service. The jail term will be served in installments on weekends.

Mr. Brant, 35 years old, had pleaded guilty in 1984 to one count of conspiracy and two of securities fraud. He could have received up to 15 years in prison and $30,000 in fines. The Final Proceeding

The sentencing was the final criminal proceeding arising from the case involving Mr. Winans, one of the writers of The Journal's ''Heard on the Street'' column from 1982 to 1984.

For Mr. Brant, the sentencing was also the final episode in his fall from a position as one of the most successful stockbrokers at Kidder, Peabody & Company.

When he entered his plea in July 1984, Mr. Brant agreed to cooperate with the Government's investigation and prosecution. He has since testified against every major figure in the scheme, including Mr. Winans; David Carpenter, a former Journal news clerk who was Mr. Winans's roommate, and Kenneth P. Felis, a former stockbroker at Kidder, Peabody.

''He gets extraordinarily high marks in compliance to the letter and the spirit of the cooperation agreement,'' said Stephen Weiner, Mr. Brant's lawyer.

That cooperation apparently played a critical role in the sentence. ''You obviously are guilty of very substantial crimes,'' Judge Stewart said to Mr. Brant. ''You are at least as guilty as Mr. Winans, perhaps more so.''

''On the other hand,'' Judge Stewart added, ''I get the impression you are trying to rehabilitate yourself.''

The conspiracy took in about $690,000 in profits from the stock-trading scheme, most of which was kept by the two stockbrokers. Mr. Brant and Mr. Felis paid Mr. Winans and Mr. Carpenter, who acted as a messenger, about $31,000. A Related Case

Mr. Brant was also a key witness last fall in the trial of David W. C. Clark, a New York lawyer, on fraud and other charges that grew out of the trading scandal. While he was not tried on any insider trading couunts, Mr. Clark traded on the information purchased by Mr. Brant.

All of the people Mr. Brant testified against were found guilty.

Mr. Winans was sentenced to 18 months in prison, Mr. Felis to six months to be served in weekend installments, and Mr. Carpenter to three years' probation. The 38-year-old Mr. Clark died in January six days before he was to have been sentenced. Medical investigators said the death was caused by complications of chronic alcoholism.

Mr. Brant's role in the insider trading scheme was particularly significant. He had paid Mr. Winans for the information, and, according to Mr. Winans, first proposed the idea. Mr. Brant denied that assertion.

In a book that Mr. Winans wrote about the case he said that Mr. Brant was a charming figure who enticed Mr. Winans into the agreement.

''Peter was a romantic figure among my Wall Street contacts,'' Mr. Winans wrote. ''Young, handsome, wealthy beyond my imagination. I could learn from this guy. I wanted to be his friend.''

Through officials at Danbury Federal Penitentiary in Connecticut, Mr. Winans declined to comment on yesterday's sentencing. Now Living in Florida

Mr. Brant moved to Florida after he pleaded guilty and he became marketing director for Diversified Tel-Comm Inc., or Biz-Tel, a long-distance telephone company. He lives with his wife and daughter in a condominum at the Palm Beach Polo and Country Club in West Palm Beach. He is expected to serve his sentence in Florida, according to Mr. Weiner.

Mr. Brant's world has greatly changed from 1983, when he was the top retail stockbroker at Kidder, Peabody, with commission income of about $2 million. He then owned a $1 million estate on Long Island and a $2 million co-op apartment in the River House in Manhattan.

At yesterday's hearing, Mr. Weiner, Mr. Brant's lawyer, said that his client had paid ''an absolutely brutal price'' for what he characterized as his ''mistakes.''

''His life essentially is in a shambles and he is ruined financially,'' Mr. Weiner said. ''Mr. Brant is basically a changed person from the highflier he was in 1983.''

The prison sentence Mr. Brant received is lighter than that of other key figures in the case, but both the Government and defense lawyers praised the sentence.

''I think it's a pretty fair sentence,'' Mr. Loewenson said. ''It does show that people who cooperate with the United States Attorney's office can expect a substantial benefit at the time of sentence.''

Mr. Brant also praised the judgement. ''I don't think you're ever happy with a sentence,'' he said, ''but I think the judge was very fair.'' Winans's Lawyer Protests

But Don Buchwald, the lawyer for Mr. Winans, criticized the sentence, saying it showed his client had been punished for going to trial.

''It seems to me that Winans's disproportionately larger sentence results from his excercising his constitutional right to test a legal theory,'' he said.

''This case would send the signal to not cooperate with the S.E.C at an early point as Winans did, but wait, see if the case goes away, and make your deal later with the U.S. Attorney's office,'' Mr. Buchwald said.

Government prosecutors disagreed with that criticism, contending that Mr. Winans played the critical role in the scheme. ''Winan's sentence at least in part reflects the fact that the scheme could not have happened but for his thefts from The Wall Street Journal,'' Mr. Loewenson said.